


Of dead and living spirits

by AliaMael



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, TWEWYTOBER, TWEWYTOBER 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2020-11-22 06:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 5,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20869757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliaMael/pseuds/AliaMael
Summary: It's October, and there's something in the air that could be anticipation or melancholy. Halloween is both for the living and the dead, after all.





	1. Day 1: Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to TWEWYtober, courtesy of [retwewy](https://twitter.com/Retwewy/status/1179077889381285888)! A prompt a day for the whole month of October... don't hesitate to join! ♥

Call it magic, call it Music, whatever. _Something_ from the Game was still crawling just under Neku’s skin. He could feel it, almost touch it upon waking up, mind midway between sleep and wakefulness, between dream and reality _(between UG and RG?)_. It was subtle, not something as obvious as being able to use psychs. (He couldn’t. He had tried.) But sometimes…

Sometimes, he just _knew_ that someone was just a little bit more special. Sometimes, he saw people running out of the corner of his eyes. Sometimes, he felt his skin tingling when crossing the invisible border between two corners of Shibuya.

He couldn’t _see_ the Game, not really. But he was frighteningly close to it.

And still, no sign of Joshua.


	2. Day 2: Countdown

Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme. Eri still didn’t know how this weird quartet had met, nor what made them so close to each other (besides the Bito being siblings, of course). She couldn’t feel excluded, not with how well she fitted, somehow, with every single all of them as well as within the group, but sometimes it was painfully obvious that she was an outsider. These four had… idiosyncrasies.

For example, Eri had quickly discovered that they all _hated_ countdowns with a passion. Her innocent tentative to lighten up the mood by counting down the days before the beginning of the next holidays had been met with visible unease, and any “ten minutes left!” by a teacher during a test had Shiki tensing and scratching at the palm of her hand like she wanted to tear out her skin.

So even if Eri was excited for Halloween at the end of the month, even if she knew her friends would have fun too, she didn’t talk about it like it was an event with a precise date. It was just… Halloween. It was enough.


	3. Day 3: Accessory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Year after year, TWEWYtober goes on showing that 1. I'm unable to write every day, and 2. I'm more than able to catch up when I'm late. So... don't worry if I go MIA I guess? By October 31 this _should_ be complete ^^

Eri had decided she wanted to try animal theme designs for her next creations, and so was binge watching animal life documentaries. Of course, each time the rest of the gang came over to see her, she paused on something holding too many memories they could never explain properly.

Frogs. Penguins. Elephants.

Rhyme had gone pale on the sharks.

Beat had left the room on the squirrels.

Eri was not _oblivious_, but she didn’t understand, and really Shiki could not blame her. Who could just guess at something so… out of this world?

“Say, Neku?” Shiki asked him one evening on the phone.  
“What?”  
“I… I think we should tell Eri.”

There was a silence.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Neku eventually answered.

Through her nerves, Shiki smiled. He really had changed for the best.

“Honestly? I’m not. Sure, I mean. But I still think we need to do it. She… she tries her best, but she can’t _know_ if we don’t tell her, and she sees that she’s hurting Beat and Rhyme but she doesn’t know how to stop it and…”  
“Breathe,” Neku advised.  
“What I mean is… it’s not accessory anymore. I don’t want to… to see my friends hurting while I could have avoided it.”  
“It’s not on you, you know that right?”  
“I’m Eri’s friend. I was the one to bring her into this mess. And you all decided I was the one who got to decide what to tell her. I… Thank you, really. It means a lot. But I think it is time. Don’t you?”  
“I think you know best, and I’ll be there for you.”


	4. Day 4: Pin

There was a Player Pin on Neku’s pillow.

At the beginning of the Game, Neku had two Player Pins. One had since been destroyed. The other was always, _always_ in his pocket, even if he couldn’t use it to scan people anymore. It was still there, slightly digging into his palm as he nervously clenched his fist around it.

The window was closed. The door of the flat had been locked.

No one should have been able to get inside, but still, here it was, that black spot on the white pillow.

Neku stood where he was, frozen, hesitating. Was he going to get thrown back into a Game? _(Was he going to be killed,_ **_again_** _?)_ But why would Joshua need him once more? It was over wasn’t it?

He had made his choice. He hadn’t fired that gun. He should be dead, twice dead, and here he was, alive.

_Trust your partner._

Neku crossed the room and grabbed the pin. Nothing happened.

He sat down on the bed, sighing. He had hoped… but no, Joshua had been silent and impossible to find since the end of the Game, why should it be different now?

At least this showed that Joshua hadn’t forgotten him, or decided he never wanted to have anything to do with him again. Even if his message was more than cryptic.

(It was only two days later that Neku realised he never once doubted it was Joshua. And he still didn’t.)


	5. Day 5: Sweet

Rhyme wandered into the kitchen, lured in by the smell of cooking.

“What are you doing?” she asked her brother.

Beat jumped, almost sending a carrot flying.

“WOAH! You a ninja now!”  
“You were really focused,” Rhyme smiled. “So, why are you stabbing this poor vegetable?”  
“I’m making curry, of course!”  
“It’s been a while…”

Beat turned back to his work.

“Neku asked if we could bring something sweet to eat at Eri’s tonight,” he explained.

Rhyme allowed her eyebrows to raise slightly.

“Are you sure he didn’t mean, like, a dessert?”

Beat turned to her, a panicked look on his face.

“But it’s sweet curry!”  
“I’m sure everyone will love it,” Rhyme reassured him.

Still, she made a mental note to grab some candies on the way. Just in case.


	6. Day 6: Bug

Eri was watching Shiki in silence, which was getting more uncomfortable by the second.

“I… think I broke her,” Shiki said.  
“Well, it’s not easy to accept that kind of thing quickly,” pointed Rhyme. “You merely made her bug like a computer. She needs time to reboot.”

(“Woah, Eri is a machine? She’s been a robot all along?!”  
“No Beat she’s not, it’s just a way of speaking.”)

Ignoring the two siblings, Neku gently pushed Eri’s plate toward her. She mechanically took a bite and slowly chewed her curry, still focused on Shiki.

“You died,” Eri eventually said.  
“Yes.”  
“You died _and I can’t even remember it_.”  
“It’s not your fault,” Shiki hurried to precise, “it’s designed that way…”  
“You _died_,” Eri cut her.

Shiki looked down at her knees.

“We all did…” she whispered.

Eri got up, walked around the table and grabbed Shiki in a bone-crushing hug. Shiki clung back to her and let out a sob.

“You all owe me _so many_ explanations,” Eri threatened with a glare directed to Neku, Beat and Rhyme, before softly adding for Shiki, “and I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”


	7. Day 7: Shop

Some days, it felt like Shibuya was the same as ever, and that only Neku and his friends had changed. But Neku knew it was only a surface impression, and that if he went digging around he would find more differences. After all, he already had.

Shadow Ramen, for example, was still there. It was weird to see the shop opened, but it was also a reminder that the Game had not been only a nightmare. It had all been true, with real consequences. It helped, somehow, to anchor him into this new life he had begun. He was not mad, just… way more lucky _and_ unlucky than most.

(Yeah, it probably deserved both qualifiers at the same time.)

What was _not_ reassuring at all, though, was that WildKat was still closed. When Neku looked through the windows, which he did each and every time he passed through Cat Street, he only saw the broken mess he had left behind him during the last stretch of the Game. No one had cleaned up anything. No one had even moved anything.

It was as if Mr H had never come back.

The café was still ignored by living people, so Neku tried to keep his hopes up. If the… magic that was hiding the building was still active, maybe it meant that Mr H was still around, right?

(He didn’t believe it himself.)


	8. Day 8: Food

Neku looked down at the food in front of him. He was not sure why he had ordered this.

“Is something wrong?” Rhyme asked.  
“Not _wrong_, but…”  
“But?” Shiki insisted.

Neku sighed.

“Shio ramen… It’s Joshua’s favorite.”

There was a silence.

“Who’s Joshua?” Eri asked.

They had not explained _everything_ to her, it would have been too long, and too _raw_. She knew about the principle of the Game and that was already a lot.

“My partner…” Neku answered.  
“I thought it was Shiki?”  
“Well, Shiki first, Beat last, and Joshua in between,” Neku corrected.  
“Oh.”

Neku poked at his ramen with his chopsticks.

“Why is he not with us?” Eri asked softly. “Did he… lose?”

Neku’s reaction was a laugh only in name.

“He won. He won, and I lost, and still I’m here and he’s not.”  
“You deserve to be here!” Shiki protested.  
“You miss him?” Eri asked.  
“He’s an insufferable asshole, and he betrayed me, and I’ll probably never forgive him… but I trust him.”

Neku took a bite of his meal, the flavor both bland and overwhelming.

“I miss him.”


	9. Day 9: Cat

Eri stared at Mr Mew. The plushie stared back, as far as a plushie could look anywhere. Which, in Mr Mew’s case, could very well be above average.

“Eri? Something’s wrong?” Shiki asked.

Eri shook her head.

“Was just thinking… You told me Mr Mew moved… kinda on his own, right?”  
“Well… I guess? I mean, I had to use my psych to… power him? Something like that? But I did not _control_ him, yeah.”  
“You think he’s conscious?”

Now, Shiki was staring at the cat too.

“I… don’t think so…?” she hesitated. “At least, not here in the RG…”

There was a thoughtful silence.

“Well, anyway, he saved your life,” pointed Eri, “so as far as I’m concerned he’s a hero. Which… kinda makes you a goddess, for _creating_ him,” she concluded with a grin.

Shiki turned beet red. Still, she didn’t protest, and Eri counted that as a win.


	10. Day 10: Black

For days now, Neku had been fighting the feeling that someone was watching him.

It was not constant. It was on and off, without discernible pattern. And if at first Neku had thought it could be Joshua, or maybe Mr H, or more probably a Reaper, he was less and less convinced.

There was something cold and almost clinical in the weight of these invisible eyes.

It bothered him, of course, but something made him keep quiet about it. He didn’t want what could still be plain natural paranoia to make his friends panick.

That lasted until he caught sight of his stalker.

His first glimpse was a reflection on WildKat’s window, but now that he had seen the person, he managed to catch her again and again on the corner of his eyes. She was… Well, she was obviously not a living human.

She could totally trick someone, but the more Neku watched the less she made sense. Because while he was certain she was indeed a she, he couldn’t manage to describe her. She was _average_. Average height, average build, average _everything_, which in the end meant his mind could only remember that she had black hair, and nothing else. He couldn’t draw her. Couldn’t recognize her except for the fact that she was the only unnatural person watching him (or maybe they were all different people, but that was too frightening a thought to entertain for too long).

Neku still didn’t tell anything to his friends, but now that was because he _knew_ something was going on.


	11. Day 11: Technology

“What’s the deal with your phones?” Eri asked.

Neku’s attention snapped to her as if she’d been calling his name; the others were a bit slower to react.

“Oh, you mean our cell phones…” Rhyme said after looking around at her friends.  
“Is there any other kind of phone here?” pointed Eri.  
“Well…” Shiki began.  
“Not going there please,” Neku cut her, “I happen to enjoy my name!”

Eri blinked, confused. Shiki shrugged, and Rhyme went on.

“Our phones are just phones, I’m not sure I understand what you mean?”

Eri furrowed her eyebrows, unimpressed.

“Yeah, and you all cling to it like they’re life saving devices, so what do I miss? Something to do with the… the Game, I guess?”  
“We forgot to tell you this part?” Shiki answered, surprise coloring her tone. “We received our missions on our phones. They were, well… the way for us to know what was going on.”

Oh. No wonder they were all glued to the pieces of technology as if they held all the secrets of the universe. For a while, it had been the case.

“I see. And what about Neku’s name…?”


	12. Day 12: Hat

“Neku, _please_ take Shiki shopping,” Eri begged.  
“What.”  
“You heard me!”

Neku threw a glance at Shiki, who was pouting, then at Eri whose face was eerily reminiscent of the infamous “Pants.Off. Now.” glare of her friend.

“Okay…” he prudently answered. “Can you just explain why?”  
“It’s nothing!” Shiki said. “I don’t need Neku to drag me around Shibuya!”  
“You obviously need _someone_ to do it!” Eri countered.  
“I already said sorry!”  
“And _I_ say you need to buy your own!”

Neku threw himself at the opening.

“Buy her own what?”  
“Her own hat! So she stops stealing mine!”  
“I only did it _twice_!”  
“Buy your own and you’ll have a hat everyday!”  
“... Shiki, I think we need to buy you a hat if only so Eri can come back from her dragon mode to human mode.”  
“‘t’s not my fault if I got used to have it on my head during the Game…”  
“Go. Shopping. Now!”

Neku grabbed Shiki and operated a strategic retreat.


	13. Location

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Health tried to make me lie... Not sure I'll be able to finish this by October 31, but I'll definitely finish it. After all, a little bit of Halloween into November is not that bad either ;)

Neku knew that sending a mail to Joshua would be useless. He did it anyway.

After days without answer, he decided to, once again, go looking for him. This weird _average_ person was nowhere to be seen, but Neku knew it wouldn’t last. And she was not part of the Game as he knew it. It was something else, and that something else was interested in _him_, and he didn’t like this. At all.

He was done being used as a pawn by superior beings.

(The irony of the fact that he was presently looking for the last superior being having exploited him to date was not lost on him.)

The only place he had never tried since leaving the Game was… should he call it Joshua’s Throne room? He probably had more chances of catching his partner there than anywhere else, but it was also so reminiscent of their last encounter that he’d have preferred not going there ever again.

Of course, he couldn’t enter the Shibuya River. Figures.

Which left him with… well, technically he had already been _everywhere_, but he couldn’t help it. Unable to access the location of his last death, he set up to the one of his first.

The wall was still here, CAT’s tag a whole new kind of fascinating now that he consciously felt the Imprint waved into it. But no Joshua.

Neku sighed. He was alone in this, apparently, and while it would have been normal only a handful of weeks before, now it was uncomfortable.


	14. Light

The traffic light turned from red to green, but Neku stayed rooted in place. His friends turned to him after two or three steps.

“Something’s wrong?” Rhyme asked.

Neku shook his head.

“It’s here that I woke up,” he said.  
“Do you mean… at the beginning, or after?” Eri asked, always curious to understand new pieces of the Game.  
“Both. Well, actually, it happened four times in a row, so the fourth time I was really unsure if I was… back.”

The light switched back to red and the group joined Neku on the sidewalk. They watched the Scramble Crossing’s chaotic life in silence.

“If you were not here with me, I might still doubt,” Neku admitted, his voice barely loud enough to be heard above the ambient noise.

Shiki and Beat shuffled closer to him, but it’s Eri who put her hand on his shoulder with a smile.

“I’ve never been _there_, and I’m _here_.”

Neku smiled back.

“Thank you.”


	15. Day 15: Yellow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain may not be cooperating, but I'm alive, and that has to count for something, right? =')

“It’s weird, somehow.”

Everyone turned to Neku, waiting for him to elaborate.

“I mean… All these people around us…”

They were in a crowded street of Shibuya. In the beginning of the night, the lights from the shops and the ads painted colored shapes on the walls, the road, the faces. Rhyme’s left cheek was a blinking blue; Shiki was a bright yellow.

“There have always been many people in Shibuya,” Eri pressed when Neku didn’t go on.  
“Yeah, but… well, _before_, I worked hard to shut them out. And then, I could… feel them? Hear them? But they couldn’t see me. And now I’m back to square one except I’m so _conscious_ of everyone, and at the same time it’s…”

Neku stopped to look for his words.

“I used to feel suffocated by the _mass_, and now I can’t see them as anything else than _individuals_. It’s vertiginous, but different.”  
“Well, the whole point was to help us change and grow, wasn’t it?” Rhyme pointed.  
“In my case it was more forcing an asshole to change and grow, but yeah…”

Neku caught the amused sparkle in Eri’s eyes and added precipitately:

“And I’m not talking about myself!”  
“Why Neku, if I go by what Shiki told me you were kind of an asshole at the beginning of all this…” Eri taunted.  
“OK, I give you this point,” Neku relented, “but still, not the asshole I’m talking about!”

Eri laughed, and soon everyone was following her. And even in the middle of the crowd, it didn’t feel like exposing oneself to hostile scrutiny.


	16. Day 16: Creature

“Shiki?”   
“What?”   
“I know I’m a bit… slow, in that case anyway, but when you told me you were attacked by noise, it was not just sound, was it?”

Shiki stared at Eri.

“What?” Eri asked. “Did I say something that stupid?”   
“No, I’m just surprised we didn’t think to explain earlier.”   
“Well, you already had way too many things to summarize. On top of heavy trauma.”

Shiki flinched.

“Yeah you may be right. So, Noise. With a capital N. It’s not sound, it’s creatures looking like… a mix between animals and tribal tattoos?”   
“... sounds way too cool given how dangerous you made them seem.”   
“You’re not wrong. Aesthetically, they are pretty pleasing. Martially, that’s another story.”   
“... think Neku would be ok if I asked him to draw some? I kinda want to see it now…”   
“Eri!”   
“What, I’m just curious!”

Shiki rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I’m sorry?” Eri tried.   
“You better be, miss I-don’t-think-before-speaking,” Shiki teased.

Eri pouted, but admitted latter Shiki had been right.


	17. Day 17: Bag

The group was at Eri’s place, watching her running all around her room rummaging through mountains of fabric.

“Shiki, any idea what she’s looking for?” Rhyme asked.  
“Absolutely no clue,” Shiki admitted.  
“Just wait for it, I know I have them _somewhere_!” Eri exclaimed.

Neku caught a bright blue fabric thrown more or less his way without commenting.

“You even more messy than me,” Beat pointed, somewhere between confused and admirative.  
“It’s not a mess, it’s a work in progress!” Eri protested.  
“You mean, at least a dozen works in progress,” Shiki smiled.  
“... ok maybe. AHA!”

Eri triumphantly exhumed what looked like yet another pile of fabric.

“... are these bags?” Neku asked after two or three seconds of staring.  
“They are! And there’s one for each of you!”

Eri seemed so proud of her it was difficult not to smile. And to be fair, she could be. Each bag was obviously designed with the personal preference of the recipient in mind. It didn’t have the spark of genius that came from Shiki and Eri working together, but it still was pretty good.

“Now you can all run around with more stuff than what fits in your pockets… _in style_!”

Everyone thanked her profusely, and no one commented on how it was clearly a subtle way of trying to protect them. But they decided to help Shiki create a bag for Eri too. After all, it was only fair. She was one of them, end of line.


	18. Day 18: Hero

Eventually, Neku had asked Shiki if she was experiencing… after-effects of the Game. Of course her first reaction was worry. Even more considering she had not remarked anything different from before (except, of course, her memories). Neku managed more or less to placate her by explaining it was only superficial impressions that could very well be paranoia.

He didn’t mention the woman.

Somehow, he didn’t need to ask Beat and Rhyme to know their answers would be along the same line. He was the only one with lingering effects. The only one being stalked by a weird entity, too. But why him? He was no hero, and even if technically the fate of Shibuya had indeed been on his shoulders for three weeks, he was not that special.

Joshua had chosen him, though. So maybe that was all there was to it. Chosen once, marked for life. And unlife, if it came to that.

He didn’t like it. At all.


	19. Day 19: Fog

Rhyme knew that, even if unwillingly, she was special.

She and her friends were not the only Players brought back to life, she was sure of it, but she knew deep into her bones that she was the only one to have been a Noise and come back.

It was weird, these blurry memories of being inhuman. She needed to actually concentrate to grasp them. It was like trying to catch ghosts through a thick fog. But she managed it every time she tried.

She could feel herself clinging to Mr H’s shoulder, then to Beat’s. She still shivered at the sensation of Konishi’s hand squeezing her very Soul.

She tried not to think too much about it. Maybe with time she could forget, go back to being a normal human being.

Somehow, she doubted it.


	20. Day 20: Change

When Neku got to his classroom this morning, one of his classmates was asking desperately for change.

“Why do you want money?” Neku asked him, confused.   
“It’s not the money! I just need a coin for Reaper Creeper!”

Indeed, the typical drawing used for the “game” was lying on one of the tables.

“I forgot to do my homework and I don’t know if I’d better be honest about it or find a lie!”   
“... well I don’t think a Reaper will answer you,” Neku couldn’t help but comment.   
“You can’t know that!”

Except he kinda could. He was not one hundred percent certain that no Reaper was here, but he didn’t feel anything out of the RG. Also, the missions never brought people inside of school buildings.

Fortunately, this kind of thing was Not His Problem Anymore, so he let his classmate try to solve his moral dilemma by questioning supernatural entities and just got his own homework out of his bag.


	21. Day 21: Orange

Eri was looking at Neku’s hair with a thoughtful expression, which only served to make Neku more and more nervous. Eventually, he had to break the silence.

“Is something wrong with my hair?”

Eri jumped, then looked embarrassed.

“Not wrong, no! Quite the opposite in fact…”

Neku threw her a wary glare.

“Orange!” she said, as if it explained anything.   
“Yeah, my hair has always been orange… Or, well, it was already orange when we met, anyway.”   
“Point,” Eri admitted. “But it’s a good color for Halloween. I was wondering if we should look for orange wigs and all have orange hair for once.”

Neku blinked, then tried to picture all his friends with orange hair.

“That would be quite the experience…” he slowly said.   
“Wait, you know what? We should do the same with everyone!”   
“... explain?”   
“Well, if we say your hair is one of your typical features, what would be typical Shiki?”   
“... Piggy?”   
“It’s a cat Neku,” Eri corrected automatically. “But yeah, we could all pick a plushie for Halloween!”   
“OK I see what you mean. But we can’t have both my orange hair and your pink hair.”   
“Damn it. Pink hair and headphones?”   
“Looks more manageable, yeah.”

Ten minutes later, Shiki was patiently explaining that no, pink and plushies were absolutely not Halloween-themed and anyway why should they all dress up as everyone else at the same time, what’s wrong with you guys?


	22. Day 22: Team

Making that bag for Eri had been both an awesome idea –she had loved it and been moved almost to tears by the feeling of being included like that– and a strategic error. Now that she knew they were all able to help for craft projects, they were doomed to be her team of helpers.

It was not a bad experience. It was even fun, at times, but it was also weird to get ordered around like that, and half of the time Eri forgot they were absolutely _not_ fashion specialists and began using jargon Shiki had then to translate.

Shiki was having a blast, though. Just for that, it was probably worth it.

But then, slowly, things began to smooth over, and they discovered they were indeed able to work as a team without stumbling around randomly. Eri was so obviously happy to have that boost to her productivity it was hard to regret the effort. And to be honest, everyone was proud to have a hand in creating things _together_.


	23. Day 23: Bat

“Seriously, Beat, you don’t even remember that?”   
“Man, I’m not observer like you!”

Beat turned to the others, but Shiki cut him before he could add anything.

“Don’t ask me, I didn’t exist at this point.”   
“I was a squirrel,” Rhyme added.

Eri, bless her, didn’t bat an eyelid at these weird explanations.

“Can we get back to the point where Beat just punched down a wall?” she asked calmly.   
“To be fair, it was not a physical wall, but still,” Neku said.   
“I just remember opening the walls, yo!”   
“Yeah, with your knuckles…”


	24. Day 24: Sign

Neku couldn’t help but look for signs. Signs of what happened in the UG. Signs of who was that woman. Signs of what she wanted with him.

There was nothing. It was  _ almost _ as if the Game had never happened. But Neku knew better. And his second (third) player pin was proof enough. Something was going on, and that something involved him somehow.

He missed Joshua. He missed Mr H. Hell, he even missed Pinky and Lollipop. But there was no one to answer his questions. No one to tell him he was not slowly going mad.

But he was lucid enough to admit that if he was the kind of person to go mad from the lack of clear answers, he would have lost it waaaaay earlier, back when he was dead. So he was probably safe, at least on that point.

Strangely enough, it was not really comforting.


	25. Day 25: Skull

Neku sighed. Grabbed his eraser and attacked the pencil on his sketch.

He had accepted his friends demand to make Halloween themed drawings, and he had been having fun with it. That is, until now.

Zombies? Easy. Bats, spiders? No problem. Witches and pumpkins and black cats and cauldrons… everything was fine until he tried skeletons.

All because of that damn Reaper Sigil. He couldn’t keep that skull design out of his drawings. He had tried to trick himself by drawing the skeletons in postures putting their skull in any position not  _ facing _ the person looking, but no way. His hands just couldn’t get the hang of an anatomically correct skull.

Well. Time to think outside of the box. This year, skeletons were getting a paper bag on their heads.


	26. Day 26: Design

“I’m not _upset_ by this,” Eri denied.  
“You totally are,” Shiki countered. “But I don’t understand why? Would you really prefer remembering me being dead?”

Eri sighed.

“It’s not… Of course I don’t like the idea of you… any of you being dead, and of course it’d be awful to remember it… But still. It feels… weird, to know it but having my memory disagree.”  
“It can’t be helped… It works like this by design. Imagine if people knew it was possible to come back from being dead!”  
“I know. But at the same time, this Game, the whole point is to make people change for the best, isn’t it?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Where does it leave me? I wasn’t in the Game, yeah, but I still feel that I would be a worse version of myself if you had not chosen to tell me… The truth made me think. The truth made me grow.”  
“... I’m still glad we could choose when and how to tell you, rather than having you traumatized by my death and subsequent coming back to life.”  
“When you say it like that, it makes it sounds like you’re all zombies.”

Shiki shrugged.

"Depends on your definition I guess, but maybe we are. And see? We can joke about it. _You_ can joke about it. Would you be able to do this if you remembered?”  
“... you may have a point.”

Shiki grinned.

“I’m a seamstress, points are what I _do_.”


	27. Day 27: Shadow

Day after day, the night was falling earlier, and the bright lights of Shibuya couldn’t quite keep the shadows at bay.

Neku had never been afraid of the dark, and the city was never truly dark anyway, but the moving shapes that blurred people and cars and signs together? That made him uneasy. He remembered way too clearly how the Iron Maiden had been able to hide in the shadows. She was not here anymore, that was true, but unfortunately there was another woman, way more able to blend in, way more forgettable, and way more interested in him. So maybe it was pure paranoia if he sometimes thought he could catch her from the corner of his eyes, using the dark to better hide from him, or maybe he was right. He had no way to know, and so he hated going out at night. Especially alone.


	28. Day 28: Spell

When Shiki and Eri got into the classroom, a bunch of girls were glued to the phone of one of them, giggling. Before they could even put down their bags, one of their classmates saw them and called them over.

“Hey, look at this! There’s a test to see what kind of witch you are!”   
“Sounds fun,” Eri admitted with a smile.   
“I got forest witch!” the girl taking the test cut in. “Favorite spell: talking to animals. Awwww!”   
“Wanna try it?” the first girl asked.   
“Why not!” Eri answered. “Shiki?”   
“Nah, I’m good. Pretty sure I’m a city witch, and my best spell is telekinesis.”

Eri threw her a “you’re fucking serious?” look. Shiki put on her best poker face.

“City witch? That sounds pretty cool!” someone commented.   
“Thanks,” Shiki said, her voice full of fake innocence. “So Eri, your turn!”

Eri got a phone pushed into her hands and had no choice but to take the test.

(She got death witch, with a spell to raise zombies, so she kinda got her revenge.)


	29. Day 29: Candle

It was a silly impulse and Neku knew it. He didn’t believe it would change anything. He just felt like doing it. So he grabbed a bunch of candles and dropped them on his desk. Then, one by one, he lit them up.

One for each person he met in the UG and hoped was still alive.

One for Mr H. One for Pinky, one for Lollipop. One for each member of Def Märch (even if he had little hope for 777).

One for Joshua. Even if the bastard was obviously alive, given that Neku  _ didn’t _ shoot him.

He added one for all the anonymous Reapers he had just seen once without even trying to differentiate between them.

The tiny flames dancing in his room were only a reminder of how much he didn’t know, and could possibly never know.

He watched them until the candles died out by themselves.


	30. Day 30: Dream

Joshua was sitting on Neku’s desk, one leg crossed over the other, his trademark smirk on his lips.

“Hello, Neku.”

Neku slowly sat up in his bed.

“Joshua. You’re… not here, right? This is only a dream.”  
“My, my, perceptive aren’t you? But no, not _only_ a dream.”  
“What do you mean? Wait, why am I even asking, if I’m dreaming there is no one to answer me…”

Joshua laughed.

“Neku, dear, you just pointed the difference between this and a normal dream. I _am_ here. Even though I shouldn’t, but what can I say? You’ve kept quite a powerful Imagination.”  
“... are you saying that I somehow… invoked you here?”  
“Oh, no, you’re far from powerful enough to do that to _me_, but let’s pretend, hmm?”

Neku rolled his eyes. Of course Joshua had to be cryptic.

“So you came to me,” Neku translated. “You know I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. Why now?”

Joshua briefly looked guilty, before hiding it behind a smug smile.

“I know how to make myself desired…”

Neku opened his mouth to answer that bullshit but Joshua beat him to it.

“I know you’ve seen her,” he said, suddenly dead serious. “Ignore her. Don’t confront her, don’t acknowledge her. And stop looking for me or Sa… Hanekoma.”

There was a whole story to unpack in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hurt that broke Joshua’s voice on that change of name, but Neku didn’t know if he had the time for that.

“Is Mr H alright? And why is this woman following me?”  
“He… Well, we both did things… not exactly appreciated by the higher ups. He’s back there, and she’s here to make sure I stay back in my lane. And she’s following you because she feels that your frequency is not _exactly_ that of a living human anymore. In other words, she feels my influence on you. She’s probably making sure I’m not using you for more nefarious schemes.”

The shrug tried to be nonchalant but failed, which was a testament to how nervous Joshua really was about this all.

“Well, you’re not. Or are you?” Neku asked, suddenly suspicious.  
“My, Neku, I would never!”  
“You so totally would. I already died twice because of your schemes, don’t think me naive enough to think it can never happen again.”

Joshua sighed.

“I’m not,” he just said, and Neku trusted him.

After all, Joshua was still his partner.

“Will I see you again?” Neku asked.  
“As long as she’s there? Absolutely not. And I don’t know how long she will stay.”

Neku nodded and got up. He crossed the room to stand before Joshua, who threw him a perplexed look.

Neku punched Joshua in the face.

“I don’t forgive you.”

Then he grabbed him in a tight hug.

“But I trust you. And I miss you.”

For once, Joshua stayed silent, but he hugged Neku back.


	31. Day 31: Fun

It was Halloween, and there was a party.

Neku didn’t like parties. But maybe he could learn to appreciate them if they were always more like this. Him and his friends. (He had friends. That in itself was worth celebrating.) Things they all liked. Things they chose together. And laughter, so much laughter.

It was Halloween, and he had dreamt of a dead person.

He felt vaguely disconnected. He tried his best to get back on earth, taste the food, listen to the music, but a small part of him wanted to linger in the memory of the night.

After all, there was someone missing here. But the last thing Joshua had whispered to him before disappearing with the light of the day had been

_“Have fun, Neku.”_

So he would. For Joshua, and for himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me two months instead of one, but here it is, TWEWYtober 2019. Hope you enjoyed, and happy belated Halloween ;)


End file.
